Saturday, June 9, 2012

Are you a hoplophobe?

Cross post from my blog:

I have to admit this is one of the most idiotic terms I have ever heard, yet it is repeatedly used to castigate those who support gun control. I have devised this simple test to determine if you are a hoplophobe or not:

A madman is pointing a large firearm at you (e.g., 12 Bore riot-shotgun with 00 buckshot, Desert eagle .44 with hollow points and laser sighting device, or something else of your choice which would most likely seriously harm, if not kill, you). He is far enough away that any attempt to disarm this person would be futile. Likewise, any attempt to pull a weapon would be met with his (or her) getting in at least a shot that would probably result in your being hurt, if not killed.Are you:

Afraid

Not at all scared since you know full well that guns are not harmful in anyway, especially not in the hands of the insane or criminals, and you could not be hurt no matter how lethal the weapon or good the person’s holding its aim.

I am sure those gunloons out there will say that they have no fear and fit squarely into category 2.Whereas anyone with a shred of sense would be afraid and say 1.

This is why the discussion of gun violence in the United States makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. “Gun rights” advocates place themselves and others in this situation through their policies, yet want to imply those who oppose them are in some way not sensible.

30 comments:

What a tumorous tissue of fallacies, I rarely see. A hoplophobe is someone who has an irrational fear of firearms. The term doesn't mean the reasonable reaction to being put into danger of death. Of course, a better response than the two that you offer is to become furious.

Gun violence isn't the result of simple gun ownership, nor does it come from the fact that we have the right to own and carry guns. Gun violence is the consequence of fools and evil people, something that Laci can look into himself to learn about.

I teach English composition and literature, so I care about how language is used. The word, fetish, applies to your side's attitude about guns, not mine. I appreciate them as objects of art. I respect them as tools. Your side sees them as penis substitutes and totems.

Option 3: I wait till the crazy guy kills you and everyone you have ever cared about, then burst in the room and save the day with a nice clean double tap. Then have a cup of coffee while I wait the 7 to 10 minutes it takes the police to respond to any emergency and clean up the mess.

But, so what if I did have a permit to carry? Does that make me a traitor to the cause that I believe that there should be regulations on firearms so that people who are not supposed to own them are not able to get them?

Where did Thomas or anyone else on our side say that we believe in the right of criminals and the insane to own firearms? We know that your proposals won't disarm them, and we insist on our right to own and to carry, but that's not the same as what you said.

But given your not-so-veiled threats of violence against me and your stated desire to see me die by gunfire, I'm pleased that your license has expired. You are, indeed, the kind of person who shouldn't have a gun.

But given your not-so-veiled threats of violence against me and your stated desire to see me die by gunfire, I'm pleased that your license has expired. You are, indeed, the kind of person who shouldn't have a gun.

Oh, Greg, silly silly deluded Greg, I think that you can put that trite notion out of your head, at no point did Laci say he got rid of his firearms, only that his license to carry concealed had long expired, he is still a hypocritical gun banner, he would never sell his firearms since none of the hoi polloi, are smart enough to own firearms just the wise and magnificent Laci.

It's a bullshit made-up term by a gun extremist, who is on the NRA board of directors, for the express purpose of making anyone who wants sensible regulation of guns in any way to seem somehow mentally ill.

And it is still used the same way now. No matter what regulation you support (say, requiring background checks for all gun purchases), the extremists will "castigate" you with this term and insist that you are somehow afraid of all guns in all instances (no matter how much you insist you have experience with guns).

It's also a sure sign that the person using the term is an extremist worthy of being ignored.

Do explain why you put quotation marks around the word, castigate. Is that not what you say that we do? I could come up with more pointed ways of describing our side's treatment of you, but I'll leave that alone for now.

By the way, it comes as no shock that you say those things about Jeff Cooper. He was a better man in one day than you'll ever be in a lifetime of living. Being on the NRA board is an honor, but I don't expect you to understand that, either.

The term was coined by "one of the 20th century's foremost international experts on the use and history of small arms" -- Jeff Cooper -- in the 1960s. It's a legitimate term for a bonafide psychological disorder. Probably more often misused than not, yes, but still legitimate.

Cooper died September 25, 2006, and there's nothing in his biography to indicate he was ever on the NRA Board of Diretors -- but it seems very likely that he was a long-term member.

I've never owned a gun and have been hunting only one time in my life. Squirrel hunting before school, with a friend who loaned me his .22 rifle. I am by no means a gun nut -- but you must be an anti-gun nut who doesn't let facts get in his way.

Get your head out of your ass and do a little checking before you shoot off your mouth. (Get that? Shoot.)

Before I leave this, I should say that no one has addressed Cooper's inconsistencies in that he has his little colour coded combat mindset and points out that guns are indeed lethal, or at least destructive with his four rules of gun safety.

YET...

He would call people who are concerned about those who would carry firearm in a civilian setting hoplophobes.

Instead he want people to walk around in condition white:

"Unaware and unprepared. If attacked in Condition White, the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy or ineptitude of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty, your reaction will probably be "Oh my God! This can't be happening to me."

No, Laci, Cooper said that anyone who carries a gun should be in Condition Yellow--relaxed, but aware of one's surroundings. He was intelligent enough to understand that the mere presence of a firearm isn't by necessity a threat. I don't expect you to understand this.